Betty Weinberg Ellerin

Betty Weinberg Ellerin is a senior counsel in Alston & Bird, LLP’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group in New York City. Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin served more than 20 years as justice of the Appellate Division—the first woman appointed as deputy chief administrative judge of the State of New York for the New York City Courts.

As deputy chief administrative judge, she administered the operation of all trial courts within New York City, including more than 425 judges and over 4,700 non-judicial personnel. From 1980 to 1982, Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin presided over the City Part in New York County and settled over 2,500 cases involving a broad spectrum of disputes in which the city was a party.

In 1999, she became the first woman appointed as an associate justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York (First Department). To date, Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin is the only woman who has been appointed as presiding justice of that court. She retired from the bench in December 2005.

Prior to her tenure on the bench, she served as a law clerk to various state supreme court judges. Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin received her LLB in 1952 from New York University, where she was awarded the Florence Allen Scholarship. She graduated with a BA, cum laude, in 1950 from Washington Square College under the combined college-law program, where she was elected to Justinian, the Pre-Law Honor Society.

Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin was a founding member and later a co-president of the NYU Alumni Association (NYUAA) and has contributed decades of service as a member of the NYUAA Board of Directors. She had held membership on six different NYUAA committees and chaired three of those committees. Mrs. Weinberg Ellerin is also an NYU Trustee Associate and member of the NYU Law Alumni Association Board and has been a generous donor to multiple NYU school initiatives.